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Snapshot: Who's at LACMA

What would you like to do with your degree?I’d love to work in a museum, actually. I was thinking education.

What made you want to study art history?I’ve always loved it. My mom’s an interior designer, so I grew up talking about aesthetic things, like is it beautiful? and form versus function. It was just a natural fit. It never felt like work to study art history, as opposed to math, which is a nightmare.

What’s your favorite museum?I was really impressed when I was in Philadelphia a couple of years ago because the museum was set up in such a way that you felt like you were walking into a space where those objects really could be exhibited originally. Context is everything. The Asian room had Asian art, but displayed with architectural features and gravel walkways. All of these things made you feel like you had stepped out of Philadelphia and into Osaka.

Emmett, Sophia, Laurie

Laurie, mother of 4-year-old twins, Sophia and Emmett

Why did you come to the museum today?Laurie: It was a beautiful day and we actually just got our NexGen memberships.

Do you like coming to museums?Sophia: Yeah, we went to the tarpit museum [The Page Museum].Emmett: I’ve been to the Hot Wheels museum [The Peterson Museum], and in one of the rooms they have all these toy cars.

Do you guys like to make art?Emmett: Yep, we like painting.Sophia: And I did clay!

Abraham, Robert, Brittany

Abraham, Robert, and Brittany, students

Why did you come to the museum today?Abraham: Just random.

If you were a piece of artwork, which one would you be and why?Abraham: I was thinking maybe the minimalist art, something like that, where you just stare at it and you don’t have to think too much; you just take it in and observe, because maybe that’s what I like to do, just observe.

For your next trip, where would you want to travel to and why?Abraham: Maybe somewhere in Japan, just to see a completely different culture.

What are you reading right now?Abraham:Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It just opens your eyes to different things and I’m not even done with it yet and it’s already changed my view on the world.

In 1989, at the age of 72, Noah Purifoy left Los Angeles and moved to Joshua Tree, California. Over the next 15 years, Purifoy would transform a barren ten-acre parcel of desert, punctuating it with more than 120 large-scale sculptures composed entirely of junk—several of which are on view in "Noah Purifoy: Junk Dada."

Read more, and follow our series of posts chronicling the artist’s life and work on Tumblr: http://bit.ly/1LVs1Bd